Bob Carter

Robert (Bob) Carter (Deceased)

Credentials

Background

Robert (Bob) Carter died in January 2016. He was a former research professor at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, and advisor to multiple climate science denial organisations around the world. He was head of the university's School of Earth Sciences between 1981 and 1999 and then held unpaid adjunct professorial positions. In January 2013 the university allowed his adjunct status to lapse, citing lack of input into the university. He was a marine geologist and environmental scientist. [2], [3]

In response to claims made by Bob Carter that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had not uncovered evidence that global warming was caused by human activity, a former CSIRO climate scientist stated that Bob Carter was not a credible source on climate change and that “if he [Carter] has any evidence that [global warming over the past 100 years] is a natural variability he should publish through the peer review process.” [4]

Carter wrote numerous newspaper articles primarily for UK and Australian newspapers that attempt to disprove global warming. He also wrote two books. [63]

Stance on Climate Change

September, 2014

“Science is never settled, but the current state of 'climate change' science is quite clear: There is essentially zero evidence that carbon dioxide from human activities is causing catastrophic climate change.” — Tom Harris and Bob Carter, New York Post. [62]

April, 2006

“There IS a problem with global warming. […] it stopped in 1998. […] That industrial carbon dioxide is not the primary cause of earth's recent decadal-scale temperature changes doesn't seem at all odd to many thousands of independent scientists. They have long appreciated - ever since the early 1990s, when the global warming bandwagon first started to roll behind the gravy train of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - that such short-term climate fluctuations are chiefly of natural origin.” [8]

Key Quotes

February, 2015

“The accusations that Willie’s funding sources dictate what he writes in his research papers are of course untrue; as they would also be untrue if alleged against the many other distinguished scientists that you employ whose funding is derived from external sources.

[…] If one wanted to sum up Willie Soon in a single sentence, it would be that he radiates scientific expertise, obeisance to empirical data, enthusiasm, commitment to communication, concern for both scientific and personal integrity and good humour in roughly equal measure.​” [21]

September, 2013

“No one should trust the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report issued today. The IPCC has a history of malfeasance that even includes rewording recommendations of expert science advisers to fit the alarmist agenda of participating governments.” [61]

November, 2006

”[…] the empirical data stressed by climate rationalists will ultimately prevail over the predictions of the unvalidated computer models. Perhaps then we will be able to attend to the real climate policy problem, which is to prepare response plans for extreme weather events, and for climate warmings as well as coolings, in the same way we prepare to cope with all other natural hazards.” [10]

May, 2004

“The first thing to be clear about is that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.” [9]

“contrary to strong public belief, the effects of increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are generally beneficial. Enhanced plant growth has many obvious benefits, amongst them increased natural vegetation growth in general, and increased agricultural production in particular. And to maintain or slightly increase planetary temperature is also very much a global good if – as Ruddiman and other scientists assert – the human production of greenhouse gases is helping to hold our planetary environment in its historic, benignly warm, interglacial mode.” [9]

Key Deeds

May 2, 2016

Bob Carter was listed among “Key Scientists” who had footage included in Marc Morano's movie, Climate Hustle. The full list included the following: [11] Marc Morano's Climate Hustle was released in U.S. theatres on May 2, 2016. Bill Nye described it as “not in our national interest and the world’s interest.” [53]

CDR Communications was behind the 2010 video by the Cornwall Alliance titled Resisting the Green Dragon, which claimed environmentalism was a “false religion” and a “global government” power grab. Chris Rogers of CDR Communictions is also chairman of The James Partnership, the umbrella arm that includes the Cornwall Alliance as one of its projects and pays the salary of Calvin Beisner, Cornwall’s founder and spokesperson. [56]

“We are putting together what I think is the most comprehensive, unique, entertaining and humorous climate documentary that has ever been done or attempted,” Morano had said before the film was released. [59]

“The reason that this is a unique film,” Morano has said, “is that we are going for a pop culture-friendly… sarcastic approach and we actually give both sides in this movie.”

In an interview with Ezra Levant, Morano said:

“I am not interviewing a lot of the main climate sceptical scientists because I feel like they have been interviewed by many other people and their stories have been told. I am trying to find another layer of scientist whose stories have not been out there yet. You will see a lot of new names in this.” [59]

Bob Carter was an author of a Heartland Institute/NIPCC publication released on the first day of the United Nations' twenty first conference of the parties (COP21) in Paris. According to the the Heartland Institute press release, The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change's book, titled Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming: The NIPCC Report on Consensus “emphatically rejects claims of a 'scientific consensus' on the causes and consequences of climate change.” [12]

Contrary to the book's premise, multiple studies and surveys have shown that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that climate warming trends over the past century are due to human activities (NASA for example). [13]

Bob Carter was a signatory to an open letter to Pope Francis on climate change. The letter invites the Pope to reconsider his views on climate change before his upcoming encyclical letter on the environment, which is widely expected to call for measures to prevent climate change in the interests of the world’s poor. The open letter was coordinated and signed by Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance. [17]

According to the letter, “Good climate policy must recognize human exceptionalism, the God-given call for human persons to 'have dominion' in the natural world (Genesis 1:28), and the need to protect the poor from harm, including actions that hinder their ascent out of poverty.” [17]

Another excerpt below:

”[…] the [climate] models are wrong. They therefore provide no rational basis to forecast dangerous human-induced global warming, and therefore no rational basis for efforts to reduce warming by restricting the use of fossil fuels or any other means.”

Judith Curry comments on her blog Climate Etc. that “Arguably the most effective ‘pushback’ comes from Cal Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance, who coordinated An Open Letter to Pope Francis on Climate Change.” [18]

“As an example, the Royal Society addresses the question of why Antarctic sea ice is growing,” said Prof Ross McKitrick, the chairman of the GWPF’s Academic Advisory Council, “but in doing so they present a recently proposed hypothesis as if it were settled science. Failing to admit when the answer to an important question is simply not known does a disservice to the public. We believe that this new paper does a much better job of presenting the whole picture to the public.” [73]

Bob Carter spoke up to defend Willie Soon after pieces were published in The Guardian and the New York Times accusing Soon of failing to disclose a conflict of interest in recent scientific papers. The New York Timeswrites “He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers.” These articles were written in light of documents obtained by Greenpeace through freedom of information filings. [19], [20]

The letters defending Soon are addressed to Wille Soon’s supervisor, Dr. Alcock, and colleagues. Carter refers to a recent reference written for Soon where he describes him thus: “If one wanted to sum up Willie Soon in a single sentence, it would be that he radiates scientific expertise, obeisance to empirical data, enthusiasm, commitment to communication, concern for both scientific and personal integrity and good humour in roughly equal measure.​“ [21]

Bob Carter was a contributor to the book Climate Change: The Facts published by the Institute of Public Affairs and featuring “22 essays on the science, politics and economics of the climate change debate.” The Institute of Public Affairs, while not revealing most of its funders, is known to have received funding from mining magnate Gina Rinehart and at least one major tobacco company.[23]

The book includes essays and articles from a range of climate change skeptics, with contributors including the following:

Bob Carter co-wrote an article in The Washington Times with Tom Harris on President Obama's “Global Warming Propaganda.” They accuse Obama of “grandstanding and attempted sabotage of the agenda” by focusing on climate change issues at the 2014 Group of 20 summit meeting in Brisbane, Australia. [24]

According to the two authors,

“That global warming stopped 18 years ago and the warming of a few tenths of a degree between 1979 and 1997 shows no sign of being other than of natural origin is apparently unknown to the president. Taking action on climate change is to be a cornerstone of his presidential legacy. Bankrupting the domestic coal-mining companies is just an added bonus in Mr. Obama’s eyes.” […]

“Mr. Obama and other global political leaders need to reconsider their misinformed belief that climate policy and energy policy should be interwoven. In reality, the two policy streams urgently need to be disentangled.”

The advertisement objects to President Obama's declaration that “few challenges facing America and the world are more urgent than combating climate change” and claims that “there has been no net global warming for over a decade” and that the dangers of global warming are “grossly overstated.” [32]

March, 2009

Bob Carter was a speaker at the 2009 International Conference on climate Change. According to Carter: [33]

“IPCC climate policy (Plan A) – to prevent hypothetical human-caused climate change by reducing CO2 emissions – hasn’t worked and won’t work. Policy Plan B needs to be that countries develop their own capacity to prepare for and adapt to real, natural climate change; they will then be well positioned to cope with hypothetical (human-caused) climate change, should any eventuate.”

The conference was hosted by the industry-funded Heartland Institute and focuses on “research that contradicts claims that Earth’s moderate warming during the twentieth century primarily was man-made and has reached crisis proportions.”

According to the Heartland Institute's event description, “The claim that global warming is a 'crisis' is itself a theory. It can be falsified by scientific fact, just as the claim that there is a 'consensus' that global warming is man-made and will be a catastrophe has been dis-proven by the fact that this conference is taking place.” [70]

In an interview with ABC, Carter describes how “increasing [carbon dioxide] in the atmosphere is actually a benefit to human kind.” [35]

The Great Global Warming Swindle received critical response from the scientific community, including a letter to ABC that was signed by thirty-seven British Scientists who claimed “the misrepresentations of facts and views, both of which occur in your programme, are so serious that repeat broadcasts of the programme, without amendment, are not in the public interest. In view of the seriousness of climate change as an issue, it is crucial that public debate about it is balanced and well-informed.” [36]

In an interview between ABC Australia’s Tony Jones and the film’s director Martin Durkin, The Great Global Warming Swindle’s validity and scientific accuracy were also put into question. [37]

The ISPM is published by the industry-supported Fraser Institute which received over $60,000 from ExxonMobil and which is also financially-supported by several tobacco companies including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco.

Publications

According to a search of 22,000 academic journals, Carter published over 50 original research in peer-reviewed journals mainly in the area of stratigraphy, the study of rock layers and layering. Carter's articles on global warming have largely appeared in economics journals, rather than mainstream science journals.

Carter wrote opinion columns on climate change, with several published in the Rupert Murdoch-owned The Australian newspaper and minor Australian publication Quadrant. A list of Carter's past publications is available on his website.

"Fossil-fuel companies have spent millions funding anti-global-warming think tanks, purposely creating a climate of doubt around the science. DeSmogBlog is the antidote to that obfuscation." ~ BRYAN WALSH, TIME MAGAZINE